Six Years of Blogging

January has always seemed like a good time of year to start something new.

Seven years ago, I read my first blog post, and I was really attracted to this idea of an online journal.  It seemed like an attainable writing challenge for me.  For a year, I thought and prayed about whether it would be in line with God's will and what its purpose would be.  I had just had my sixth child; I was homeschooling, active in my church, and had a husband who traveled a lot. Would it be right for me to spend the time on what was possibly just a whim?

But I couldn't put the idea out of my mind, and it grew to be a strong desire.  My husband approved, and I knew that if nothing else, it could be an online family scrapbook and a way for extended family and friends to keep up with us.  But I hoped it might also be an encouragement to other Christian women (and maybe even a few men)--something I really did feel called to.

So I made a Poke the Box decision (before that book was written) to just start something, and see what happened.  My first post was a late-night New Year's Eve movie review.  In subsequent entries, I explained my blog theme, about contentment with the reality that spiritual growth happens slowly when one is busy with a family, and that it happens in the mundane and everyday.  (See the sidebar labels "a hen's pace" and "sacred everyday.")

I might examine these threads again, six years later, when the nest feels so different!  The pace of our life has increased so much in the last six years, with a move in our geographical location, the added responsibility for Papa Rooster of leading a church, and our chicks spreading their wings and spending more time out of the nest--which really stretches a Mama Hen.

It's January, and with the decision to put our two youngest in school this year, I finally feel like I have a little breathing room in my life.  Perhaps I could do more with my blog now.  Or is there something else God wants me to put my writing energies into?  Just like six years ago, I doubt, and wonder whether that energy should go to my family or my church instead.

But I think God smiles at my chicken scratchings here, and it surely lifts my soul to write.  Don't know about starting something new...but I think at least I shall continue!

To help celebrate my "blog-i-versary," every year I ask my readers to post a comment for me!  It cheers me to know there are real, live people reading, not just numbers or random google hits racking up on a site meter.  

Just chime in with a hello and where you're from, since that's fun for everyone to see.  And if you have a question, suggestion or request for me, I promise I will write a post to address it!  

(Is that rash?  We shall see!)

Blessings, friends!  Thank you all!